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I remember so well the time God implanted this truth about being properly dressed in my heart. It came as a discipline in my own life, and it has been life-changing for me. It’s something we can remember and relate to, and so I want to share it with you, praying that God will use it in your life, as he has and does in mine.
The wardrobe that I want to talk about is found in Colossians the third chapter:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful (Colossians 3:12-15).
These are the special garments intended by God for each of us to wear, and as Christians, we have a unique opportunity to be lights in our working worlds, in our families, and everywhere we go by learning how to wear these beautiful clothes. Let’s look more closely at these inner garments which we need to “put on.”
COMPASSION: This can be described as a deep feeling of sharing the suffering of another. You know, it’s not hard to find suffering people these days. There is mental, physical, and emotional suffering everywhere, and undoubtedly you have suffering people all around you where you work and live. Are you aware of their suffering?
It seems to me that all too often I am quick to blame people and judge them without stopping to think of what they have endured, or why they are the way they are. That’s especially easy to do at our jobs. If you’re not careful, you can judge your fellow workers without really understanding their suffering.
Let me assure you that compassion will look good on your job. If you wear it, you won’t be so quick to condemn or judge. You’ll give people room to make mistakes. Your prayer list will get longer because when you care about people, you pray for them. I encourage you to pray for the people you work with. When you do, you’ll discover that you feel much more compassionate toward them. Yes, indeed, we need to wear compassion on our jobs.
KINDNESS: Kindness is the second garment in the closet of a well-dressed Christian. Have you been too busy to wear kindness lately? Maybe, like me, you take it on and off, depending on your mood, or who you’re with. Sometimes we are least kind to the people nearest to us. We seem to forget that it’s important to be kind to those people we work with every day. Sometimes we seem to save our kind behavior for people we don’t see very often, as though it were in short supply. God has plenty of it, so wear it to work every day. You’ll look terrific!
HUMILITY: Third in this special wardrobe is humility. The world often gives negative connotations to humility, as though it were an undesirable characteristic. It is often viewed as weakness or wimpy. Rarely do we think of humility as a necessity for getting to the top in the business world.
But that’s an incorrect assessment of true humility. The Bible defines humility as a lack of pride and an awareness of who we are in comparison to who God is. God hates pride; it’s the number one sin at the top of the list of things he hates. One of the indicators of humility is a teachable attitude. The person who is always willing to learn, to change, to take good advice is a truly humble person.
GENTLENESS: And then we come to gentleness. I am always overwhelmed with the amazing gentleness of Jesus Christ. Oh, how we need to wear his gentleness every day. We need that gentle and quiet spirit, which the Apostle Peter tells us should be our adornment, and which is precious in the sight of God.
Are your words tough or harsh on your job or at home? Do you have a sharp tongue or hasty actions that pierce and hurt people before you realize what you’re doing? Then you undoubtedly need to wear more gentleness. Gentle answers turn away anger, we are told in Proverbs 15:1, and a gentle spirit brings peace to chaotic situations. It is a precious garment, and everyone will love it on you!
PATIENCE: The next garment we find in this wardrobe for the inner person is patience. Patience can be defined as the capacity to calmly endure. I have to chuckle when I say that, because if anything is the opposite of me, it is calm endurance. This is a really difficult garment for me to wear; it just never seems to fit—always a little too small for me.
And yet God put it on his list, and he didn’t make any exceptions, not even for me. You know, I’m learning that God can make this garment fit me—or rather, make me fit this garment—if I am willing to let him. Since I’ve started asking him to help me wear patience, he has put me into situations that have taught me how to be more patient. I’m learning; it fits better now than it used to. If I can wear patience, so can you.
TOLERANCE: The next garment is “bearing with one another”—or tolerance. Tolerance is that beautiful quality of allowing other people to be different from you, even different from what you think they should be, and loving them and appreciating them for who they are. If you wear tolerance every day, you won’t be upset when people don’t do exactly what you think they should do. You’ll allow them more room for error. You’ll bend over backwards to understand where they’re coming from and to give them more time to grow and learn.
I often expect others to track along with me—to march to the same tune that my band is playing. And God reminds me that he deals with each of us individually. Just because he is teaching me one lesson or guiding me in one direction, doesn’t mean others must be there with me! Tolerance is the garment that allows us to “bear with” others, whatever their circumstance.
FORGIVENESS: The word itself is beautiful. And, oh, what a wonderful garment to have and to wear. It brings so much happiness to others when we’re able to forgive. God tells us to forgive others as he has forgiven us. That’s powerful forgiveness, isn’t it? Are you harboring an unforgiving attitude in your heart toward someone? Even if you have been mistreated, you need to put on forgiveness. Even if you haven’t been asked to forgive, you need to wear forgiveness. And even if you’ve forgiven them for the same thing time and again, you need to keep forgiving them.
You’ll be amazed to see that in forgiving others, you relieve yourself from an immense burden of bitterness and resentment. And you experience God’s forgiveness for you in greater measure, so you rid yourself of guilt you’ve been carrying around. Forgiveness for others reaps enormous benefits for you. Put on forgiveness; it is lovely.
PEACE: Peace is the next beautiful garment in God’s wardrobe. Are you peaceful? Or do you fret and worry a lot? Is your life frantic? Perfect peace comes by fixing your mind on Jesus Christ. Have you tried on any peace lately? It is the most wonderfully comfortable garment in the whole wardrobe. Once you try it on, you will want to wear it constantly.
THANKFULNESS: Thankfulness is absolutely essential in your wardrobe if you want to be a well-dressed Christian. When you’re thankful, you don’t complain a lot about what you don’t have or can’t do or where you are or who you are. There usually is lots of complaining going on in most any job environment. A thankful attitude will keep you from being part of that complaining. If you wear thankfulness, you won’t complain. You’ll be too busy counting your blessings. Thankfulness is very attractive. When you wear it, you have a certain magnetism; people love to be with you. It makes you a positive person, and it cures depression.
Have you been wearing thankfulness to work? It is a magical garment, because as we learn to give thanks in every situation, we discover our heaviest burdens grow light and easy.
LOVE: And then as the crowning touch to all the other garments in this unique wardrobe, we need to wear love. Love is the golden chain of all these virtues. It is the finishing touch that brings the whole wardrobe together and blends every garment into a unified appearance.
Love covers up blemishes; it fills in the missing gaps and mends the frayed edges. God’s love, worn in our hearts, motivates us to want to wear all these garments.
So, here they are, God’s wardrobe all prepared for you: Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, peace, thankfulness and love. You’ve heard it said that the clothes make the person. Well, whether that’s true for our outer clothes, it certainly is true with this special wardrobe for our inner persons, which as Christians we are told to “put on.”
You know, this wardrobe is totally within your reach, you can afford it, it will look absolutely marvelous on you, and it will assure you of being a success in your Christian walk. If you wear this wardrobe on your job every day, you can be certain you will be the best-dressed person on the job!
But how in the world do we do that? It’s not difficult to talk about these garments, and it’s easy for me to encourage you to wear them. But if you find they don’t fit or wonder how to be patient, kind, gentle or thankful in everyday situations, how do you change? How can you put on these beautiful clothes that every Christian should wear?
Well, that’s what I’m sharing in part two. I believe I can give you some practical new insights on how these fruits of God’s Spirit can become realities in your everyday life.